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New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16621, 18 August 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

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" ? id t ? ie Opener of itoads ho comes ?^ he wishe<J to dwell wher > " Comes to visit me here at Ulundi ?" the hillo . a " swere Goza, "yonder in man an °n - l lor away than an aged a nl* D W n lk ln the half of an hour, is causedVi nr ed u he j Valley of Bones, bebefore f), re 1" the da ; vs °* those who went div m„ and even in th * king's 7il-ni; V ®^ ll - doers have been led to die. Zikali would dwell in this Valley of meet +V a ", ■ ere and nowhere else would meet the king and the Great Council, not 6 daylight but after sunset when the moon has risen." said Cetewayo, starting, "the „ ' , ls . ill-omened and, thoy say, haunted, full f, no , man dares approach after the nf th darkness for fear lest the ghosts ing " a< l should leap upon him gibberPr» n f QC h were the words of the Opener of Koads, 0 kin", ' replied Goza. " There and nowhere else will he meet the king, and there he demands that three huts should be built, to shelter him and his folk and stored with all things needful. If this o not granted to him, then he refuses to visit the king or to give counsel to the nation. «' Q '*■> then," said Cetewavo. bend messengers to the Opener of Roads, hjoza, saying that what he desires shall |oe done. Let my command go out that I ur ) l er ' of death none spv upon him while ho journeys hither and returns. Lei, the huts be built forthwith, and when >t is known that he is coming let food in plenty bo placed in them and afterwards morning by morning taken to the mouth of the valley. Bid him announce his arrival and the house he chooses for our meeting by messenger. Begone." Goza leapt up, gave the royal salute, and retreated backwards from the presence of the king, leaving us alone. I •also * rose to depart, but Cetewayo motioned to me to be sealed. "Macumazahn," he said, "the Great Queen's man who has come from Natal (Sir Bartle Frere) threatens me with war because two evil-doing women were taken on the Natal side of the Tugela and brought back to Zululand and killed by Mehlokazulu, being the wives of his father, Sirayo, which was done without my knowledge, and two white men were driven away from an island in the Tugela River by some soldiers." " Is that all, 0 king?" I asked"No. The Queen's man says I kill my people without trial, which is a lie told him by the missionaries, and that girls have also been killed who refused j to marry those to whom they were given ' and ran away with other men; also that I wizards are smelt out and slain, which j "happens but rarely now, contrary to the i promises I made to Sompseu when he' came to recognise me as king upon my father's death, and some other such smail; matters." " What is demanded if you would avoid • war, O king?" Nothing less than this, Macumazahn : That the Zulu army should be abolished, and the soldiers allowed to marry whom. and when they please, because, says the Queen's man, he fears lest it should be! used to attack the English, as though I! who love the English, as those have done! who went before me, desire to lay a finger on them. Also that another Queen's man i should be, sent to dwell here in my! country, to be the eyes and ears of the : English Government and have power with me in the land ; yes, and more demands, | which would destroy the Zulus as a people 1 and make me, their king, but a petty ! kraal-head-" / j "And what will the king answer?" ij asked. , "I know not what to answer. The fine of two thousand cattle I will pay for the i killing of the women. If it may be, | I would have no war with the English, j though gladly enough I would have fought' the Dutch had not Sompseu stretched out v his arm over their land. But how can I disband the army and make an end of the regiments that have conquered in so many wars? Macumazahn, I tell you that if I did this in a moon I should be dead. Oh', you white people, think there Is but one will in Zululand of the king. But it is not so, for he is but a j single man among ten thousand thousand, who lives to work the people's wish. If he beats them with too thick a stick, or if he brings them to shame or does what the most of them do not wish, then where is the king? Then, I say, he goes a road that was trodden by Chaka and Dingaan, who were before me— the red road of the assegai. Therefore to-day I stand like a man between two falling" cliffs. If I run towards the English, the Zulu cliff falls upon me. If I run towards my own people, the English cliff falls upon me, and :in either case I am crushed and no more seen. Tell me then, Macumazahn, you whose heart is honest, what must I do?"

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD, uf or of King Solomon's Mines "44 All®.* °< <M W.rld"'" ono. The People 0 f tho Mist." " Cleopatra." (COPYRIGHT.) CHAPTER —(Continued.) hand ZJ"** ™ Wl can S ht ° ld of my hand.begging mo to intercede for him "lay *4 S" had UP dr^ed hi » -hi* u ™ 8 h — t r s: r;^,r nd - presentiy a w ° rd <>« 'P. 0 ? , llko , an arrow and after nim think i} DdS ' ton ° r more of them. I flunk they caught him just by the gate doubling like a hare, or so the shouts of laughter from the watching regimented me, for myself I would not look. That dog ate his own stomach," said ■ Cetewayo grimly, thereby indicating in native fashion that the biter had been bit, or the engineer hoist with his own petard. «' It i 3 *ong since there has been a war in the land, and some of these young soldiers who have never used an assegai I save to skin an ox or cut the head from I a chicken, shout too loud and leap too high. Now they will be quieter, and while you stay here you may walk where you will in safety, Macumazahn," he added thoughtfully. Then dismissing the matter from his imnd 03 wo white people dismiss any ~''a incident in a morning stroll, he talked for a few minutes to the commanding officer of the . regiment that was mulling, who ran up to make some report to him and walked back towards the Goza? beckoning mo to follow with After waiting fop a little while outside the gate in the surrounding fence, a bodvservant ordered us to enter, which we did to hnd the king seated on the shadv side of his big hut quite alone. At a sign I also sat myself down uDon a stool that had been set for me, while Goza, whose side was still bleeding, squatted at my side. "Your manners are not so good as they were once, Macumazahn," said Cetewayo presently, "or perhaps you have been so long away from the royal kraal ths.t you have forgotten its custom." I stared at him, wondering what he could me«/a, whereon he added with a laugh : "What is that in your pocket? la it not a loaded pistol, and do you not remember that it is death to appear before the king armed? Now I might kill you and have no blame, although you are mv guest, for who knows that you are not sent by the English Queen to shoot me?" " I ask the king's pardon," I said humbly enough. "I did not think about the pistol. Let your servants take it awav." " Perhaps it is safer in your pocket, where I saw you place it in" the cattlekraal, Macumazahn, than in their hands, which do not know how to hold such things. Moreover, I know that you are not one who stabs in the dark even when our peoples growl round each other like two dogs about to fight, and if you were, in this place your life would have to pay for mine. There is beer by your side; drink and fear nothing. Did you see the Opener of Roads, Goza, and if so, what is his answer to my message?" " 0 king, I saw him. The father* of the doctors, the friend and master of the spirits, says he has heard the king's word, yes. ( that he heard it as it passed the king's lips, and that although he is very old, he will travel to Ulundi and be present at the Great Council of the nation which is to be summoned on the eighth day from this, that of the full moon. Yet he makes a prayer of the king. It is that a place may be prepared for him, for his people, and for his servants who carry him away from this town of Ulundi, where he may sojourn quite alone, a decree of death being pronounced against " any who attempt to break in upon his privacy, either where he dwells or upon nis journey. These are his very words: 'I, who am the most ancient man in Zululand, dwell with the spirits of my fathers, who will not suffer strangers to come nigh them, and who, if they are offended, will bring great woes upon the land. Moreover, I have sworn that while there is a king in Zululand and I draw the breath of life, never again will I set foot in a royal kraal, because when last I did so at the slaying of the witch, Mameena, the king who is dead thought it well to utter threats against me, and never more will I, the Opener of Roads, be threatened by a mortal. Therefore if the king and his council seek to drink of the water of my wisdom, it must be in the place and hour of my own choosing. If this cannot be, let me abide here in my house and let the king seek light from other doctors, since mine shall remain as a lamp to my own heart.' " Now I saw that these words greatly disturbed Cetewayo, who feared Zikali, as indeed did all the land. "What does the old wizard mean?" he asked angrily. "He lives alone like a bat in a cave and for years has been seen of none. Yet as a bat flies .forth at night, ranging far and wide in search of prey, so does his spirit seem to fly through Zululand. Everywhere I hear the same word. It is—'What says the Opener of Roads?' It is—' How can aught be done unless the Opener of Roads has declared that it nhall be done, he who was here before the black one (Chaka) was born, he who it is said was the friend of Inkosi Unknlu, the father of the Zulus who died before our great-grandfathers can remember; he who has all knowledge and is almost a spirit, if indeed ho be not a spirit?' I ask you, Macumazahn, who are his friend, what does he mean, and why should I not kill him arid bo done "O king," I answered, "in the days of your uncle, Dingaan, when Digaan slew the Boers who were his guests, and thus began the war between the white and the black, I, who was a lad, heard the laughter of Zikali for the first time yonder at the kraal Ungungundhlovu, I who rode with Reitef and escaped the slaughter, but his face I did not see. Many years later, in the days of Panda your father, I saw his face and therefore you name me his friend. Yet this friend ■who drew me to visit him, perhaps by your will o king, has now caused me to "be brought here to Ulundi, doubtless by your will, 0 king, hut against my own, for who wishes to come to a town where he is well-nigh slain by the first brawler he meets in the cattle kraal?" " Yet you were not slain, Macumazahn, and perhaps vou do not know all the story of that trawler," replied Cetewayo almost humbly, like one who begs pardon, though the rest of what I had said he i lored. " But still you are his friend, for between you and him there is a rope which enabled him to draw you to Zulu bind, which rope I have heard called by a woman's name. Therefore by the spirit "f that woman, which still can draw you like a rope, I charge you, tell me—what dues this old wizard mean, and why should I not kill him and be rid of one who haunts my heart like an evil vision of the night, and, as I sometimes think, is an umtakati, an evil-doer, who would work ill to me and all my house, yes, and to all my people?" " How should I know what he means, 0 king?' - I answered with indignation, though in fact I could guess well enough. " As for killing him, cannot the king kill whom lie will ? Yet I remember that'once 1 heard your father ask much the same question and of Zikali himself, saying that he minded to find out whether or no he were mortal like other men. I remember also he answered that there was a saying that when the Opener of Roads came to the end of his road, there would be no more a king of Zululand, as there was none when first he set foot upon his road. Now I have spoken, who am a white man and do not understand your sayings." "I remember it also, Macumazahn, who was present at the time," he replied heavily. "My father feared this Zikali and his father feared him, and I have heard that the Black One himself, who feared nothing, feared him also. And I, too, fear him, so much that I dare not make up my mind upon a great matter without his counsel, lest he should bewitch me and the nation and bring us to nothing."- Ho paused, then turning to,.

So he spoke, wringing his hands with tears starting to his eyes, and upon my word, although I never liked Cntewayo as I had liked his father, Panda, perhaps because I loved his brother, TJmbelazi, whom he killed, and had known him do many cruel deeds, my heart bled for him. " I cannot tell yo;p, king," I answered, thinking that I must say something, "but I pray you do not make war against the Queen, for she is the most mighty one in the whole earth, and though her foot, of which you see but the little toe in Africa, seems small to yon, yet if she angered it will stamp the Zulus flat, so that they cease to be." " Many have told me this, Macumazahn. Yes, even Uhamu, the son of my uncle TJnzibe, or, as some sav. the son of his spirit, to which his mother was married after Unzfbe was dead, and others throughout the land, and in truth I think it myself. But who can hold the army which shouts for war? Ow ! the council must decide, which means perhaps that Zikali will decide, for now all hang upon his lips." "Then I am sorry," I exclaimed. He looked at me shrewdly- " Are you? So am I. Yet his counsel must be asked,, and better that it should be here in my presence than yonder secretly at the Black Kloof. I would kill him if I dared, but I dare not, whom am surewhv I may not say—that the same sun will see his death and mine." He waved his hand to show that the talk on this matter was ended; then added : " Macumazahn, you are my prisoner for a while, but give me your word that you will not try to e.tcape and you may 30 where you will within an hour's ride of XJlundi. I would pay you well to stop here with me, but this I know you would never do should there be trouble between us and your people. Therefore, I promise you that if war breaks out I will send you safely to Natal, or perhaps sooner, as my messenger, whence doubtless you will return to fight against me. Know that I have given orders that every other white man or woman who is found in Zululand shall he killed as a spy. Even John Dunn has fled or is flying, or so I hear. John Dunn who has fed out of my hand and grown rich on my gifts. You yourself would have been killed as you came from Swaziland in your cart had not commands been sent, to those chiefs through whose lands you passed that neither they nor their people were so much as to look at you." j Now for one intense moment I thought, as hard as ever I had done in my life. It wits evident.unless lie was dealing very I cunningly with me, which I did not bet lieve—that Cetewavo knew nothing of Anscombe and Heda, but thought that I had come into Zululand alone. Should I qr should I not tell him and beg his protection for them? If I did so he might refuse or be unable to give it to thru) fur away in the mid?t of a savage population aflame with the lust of war. As the incident of the morning showed, it was as much as he could do to protect mvself. although the Zulus knew me for their friend. On the other hand,' no one who dwelt under Zikali's blanket, to use the Kaffir idiom, would he touched, because he was looked on as half divine, and therefore everything undei it down to the rat ir> his thatch was sacred. _ Now Zikali trv implication and Noinbe with emphasis had promised to safeguard these two. Surely, therefore, they would run less risk in the Black Kloof than here at Ulundi, if ever they got so far(To bo continued on Wednesday next.)